Non-threatening--ways for quieter students to share/get ideas without fear
Diversity of topic brainstormed
Save the teacher from having the burden of helping a student come up with a good topic
Gallery walk: physical movement for students with special needs
Models good questioning
Extend into math and other content areas
Group based on topic, but require students to take a different perspective/angle
Framing group work to increase accountability
Good modeling of papers--did it as a group first before we had to do it ourselves
Options: questions and suggestions
inspires curiosity

Suggestions:
make sure that there's a section devoted to suggestions
Include individual articulation of "what is a research paper?"
Confusion about research paper/persuasive argument
Application in other content areas
Signal when you move from one poster to another--but also good to have things a little looser, so adapt for the needs of your class
Maybe large group process with one or two posters towards the end (the categorization part)
Use 11" x 17" paper and pass around (if no room for all the sheets) or put on wiki
Divide into two groups/two days
Divide into two types of activities: questions and ideas
Post-Its--day long activity when students think of something, add it
Topic Bank (a la Kelly Gallagher), create master list